The U.S. City Open Data Census is an ongoing, crowdsourced measure of the current state of access to open datasets in municipalities across the United States. Anyone can contribute an assessment of these datasets, and submissions are peer-reviewed by a volunteer team of Census librarians coordinated by Sunlight. In this way, the City Open Data Census serves as a benchmarking tool which people can use to ignite conversations with their government about open government data.

Open Knowledge International has been making upgrades to the technical platform that supports the U.S. City Open Data Census (and dozens of similar projects around the world). One consequence of the changes they have been working on is that starting in January, the Census site will only show submissions from 2018 and beyond. The old data will still be available on an archived site.

This is a great opportunity to improve the Census as well as the way your city is represented in it. Since becoming the primary administrators of the project last year we’ve been on the lookout for ways it could be better, and now is a prime opportunity to make those ideas happen. Is there a way we could change the Census questions to better capture what’s happening in your city? If so, send us your ideas.

Second, starting in January we will need to repopulate the platform. This will be a chance to revisit your city’s current open data accomplishments as well as your plans for the future. Look for more information about this in the new year.

Finally, if you want any additional 2017 data to appear on the current version of the site, please submit your entries by the end of December. Starting in January, submissions will go to the new version of the site.

We’re looking forward to giving the Census a fresh start in the new year, and hope to have your help as we do it.